Index Archive

22 June 2018

Black Money Panama Papers second List reveals more Indian Names linked to Tax Heavens The Panama Papers — a partnership between 100 media organizations around the world that analyzed 11.5 million secret Mossack Fonseca documents exposed the dodgy world of offshore companies where rich people hide their black money which is later on turned into white money using legal loopholes.‘Panama Papers: The Aftermath‘ is a fresh investigation by The Indian Express, in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, of Indian individuals and entities who park and move their money in and out of safe havens. The new documents reveal that Mossack Fonseca couldn’t identify tens of thousands of owners of companies it had registered in opaque, low-tax jurisdictions. In 2016, 11.5 million documents leaked from Mossack Fonseca, a law firm in Panama, exposed the offshore financial links of a number of individuals and organisations

It came to light how the global elite, over 500 of them Indians, parked their money in offshore companies and even move from one secret tax haven to another.

In Pakistan PM Nawaz Shariff lost his chair, Pakistan took action on him.In India what happened I really do not know, my own belief is that no action was taken or the people paid little bit fine and avoided jail terms. Indian laws are full of loopholes so under name of technical fault , not serious nature rich players get protection only common man, service man fears the tax officers in India.

The Indian clients, listed earlier by The Indian Express in the Panama Papers reports in April 2016, include companies where industrialist Anil Vasudev Salgaocar and his son, Arjun Anil Salgaocar, are listed as shareholders; companies owned by members of the Rosy Blue family; and offshore company owners or directors such as Lokesh Sharma, Satish Modi, Onkar Kanwar, Anurag Kejriwal and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

2 years after the Panama Papers revelations, new records show that entities linked to Indian nationals dominate the list of offshore companies on the radar of authorities in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the Bahamas.

first set of records, which covered the late 1970s to 2015

The new leak of documents spans the period from early 2016 — just before journalists published the Panama Papers in April — through the end of 2017, a few months prior to the firm collapsing.

The new 1.2 million files from the #PanamaPapers reveal the back-and-forth correspondence between Mossack Fonseca and various intermediaries

The new leak: Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper was given the new files, which were shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.Its size: 1.2 million files, roughly 1/10th of the original 2.6 terabyte leak of 11.5 million files.Media partners: More than 100 journalists across globe which includes Indian Express.

The fresh document leak from law firm Mossack Fonseca names a number of global elites including football superstar Lionel Messi, Argentina President Mauricio Macri and his family, and a former senior Kuwaiti official who was convicted of looting his country’s social security system, besides several Indian personalities. The new set of documents also revealed that Mossack Fonseca's Indian clients reacted to the first leak very differently. While some Indian owners of offshore companies rushed to liquidate their firms, some not only asked Mossack Fonseca to continue as their agent, but also increased their holdings. Like Lokesh Sharma, owner of British Virgin Islands-based Mardi Gras Holdings, who increased his share capital 30 times in February 2017. Significantly, Kolkata businessman and BJP leader Shishir Bajoria, who had previously told the daily that his name in Mossack Fonseca records was a clerical mistake, contacted the law firm through an intermediary to change the beneficial ownership of Haptic (BVI) Ltd just days later. The firm was liquidated in May 2016. Around the same time, PRS Oberoi resigned as director of J&W Inc, a Bahamas company.

Companies and individuals with links to offshore entities, which Mossack Fonseca confirmed in a series of messages, include Shiv Khemka, Amitabh Bachchan, Jehangir Sorabjee, K P Singh of the DLF Group and his immediate family, Anurag Kejriwal, Navin Mehra of Mehrasons Jewellers and Hajra Iqbal Memon and his family

Shortly after the 2016 expose, the leaked documents show, Mossack Fonseca named Amitabh Bachchan as director of Lady Shipping Ltd and Treasure Shipping Ltd in its communications. Soon, a 90-day notice was served on him via UK-based Minerva Trust — the administrator for these two companies. Interestingly, the communication this time addressed the actor as the director of yet another firm, Sea Bulk Shipping Company Ltd, which it said did not meet “due diligence requirements”.

Now Panama Papers 2.0 is back which has revealed more Indian names who parked their money in tax heaven.

Two years down the line, the Panama Papers are back to haunt more individuals and organisations as new details have emerged with more than 1.2 million fresh documents being leaked.At least 12,000 of these documents are linked to Indians, according to The Indian Express

The second round of the expose, titled Panama Papers: The Aftermath, confirms the existence of several Indian entities, all clients of Mossack Fonseca, who had until now denied any links. The new Indian names include PVR Cinemas owner Ajay Bijli and members of his family, industrialist Sunil Mittal’s son and Hike Messenger CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal, and Jalaj Ashwin Dani, son of Asian Paints promoter Ashwin Dani, among others

The new names figuring in the reports published by The Indian Express on 21 June include PVR Cinemas owner Ajay Bijli and members of his family; industrialist Sunil Mittal’s son and Hike Messenger CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal; and Jalaj Ashwin Dani, son of Asian Paints promoter Ashwin Dani, among others. In 2016, when offshore links of a number of Indian companies and individuals were unearthed, the Bijli family was already on the client list of Mossack Fonseca. According to IE, Ajay Bijli, his wife Selena and son Aamer set up an offshore company, Chesterfield Mayfair Holdings Limited in May 2005, to hold a property in the United Kingdom.According to the latest leaks, the Bijlis held two more offshore companies through a trust and Delhi-based Priya Exhibitors Private Limited.

Panama Papers Second List Names -

1-Ajay Bijli, owner of PVR cinemas, as well as members of his family and Kavin Bharti Mittal - A pioneer in multiplex cinemas in India, Ajay Bijli, along with wife Selena and son Aamer, beneficially owned an offshore company set up to hold a property in the UK. In April 2016, according to the latest cache of Mossack Fonseca’s internal documents, the Bijli family also held two other offshore companies through a Trust and Delhi-based Priya Exhibitors Private Limited.Chesterfield Mayfair Holdings Limited was set up in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in May 2005. Mossack Fonseca became the company’s registered agent in 2012. In April 2016, two BVI companies — Tainstar Limited and Cinestar Limited — held between them all the shares of Chesterfield Mayfair Holdings Limited.Both Tainstar Limited and Cinestar Limited were incorporated in BVI in November 2015. On April 28, 2016, Mossack Fonseca records show, Minerva Fiduciary Services (Mauritius) Limited held all the shares of Tainstar Limited as the trustee of the Aamer Krishan Bijli Trust. Ajay Bijli’s son Aamer Krishan Bijli was born in 1998 and is a British citizen. On April 5, 2016, Delhi’s Priya Exhibitors Private Limited was the sole shareholder of Cinestar Limited (BVI), according to Mossack Fonseca records. Ajay Bijli, mother Sandhuro Rani, wife Selena and brother Sanjeev are directors of Priya Exhibitors Private Limited. Copies of the Indian passport, PAN card and bank statement of Ajay Bijli and the British passports of Celina and Aamer were among the documents provided to Mossack Fonseca as part of due diligence records

2- India - Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike Messenger and son of telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal. KBM Global Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) by Mossack Fonseca in December 2008. Email exchanges between March 16 and March 17, 2016, show that the BO (beneficial owner) of the company is Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike Messenger and son of telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal. His Amrita Shergill Marg, New Delhi address is mentioned in the email exchanges where the name of the BO has been inserted. The only details available until April 2016 (when the Panama Papers were published) is that the Secretary or the intermediary of the company was Minerva Trust Company Limited and its shareholder was Minerva Nominees Limited, holding 94 shares. A second company, Anten Resources Incorporated, was shown as another shareholder of KBM Global Limited. In the new records, there are two other sets of documents linked to Mittal and KBM Global Limited. The first shows that on October 31, 2016 — six months after the Panama Papers — a notice was published by British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission with the information that the registered agent of the company had been changed from Mossack Fonseca to Harney’s Corporate Services Limited, both located in Tortola in the BVI. The other set of documents show how the shareholding pattern of the two BVI companies changed in March 2016 and how 14 shares from Anten Resources were transferred to Minerva Nominees Limited, (which were) “held under declaration of Trust for Kavin Bharti Mittal”.

3- Jalaj Ashwin Dani, son of Asian Paints promoter Ashwin Dani.

4-football superstar Lionel Messi, - Lionel Messi, the Argentine star who plays club football for Barcelona, and his father Jorge Horacio Messi were already under investigation in Spain on charges of using offshore companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes. The Panama Papers revealed they owned yet another offshore company, Mega Star Enterprises, based in Panama. Lionel Messi faced a 21-month suspended sentence and was fined $2.2 million.

5-Argentina's President Mauricio Macri's family - About Argentine president Mauricio Macri, the ICIJ report says emails between Mossack Fonseca’s head office in Panama and its Uruguay branch in September and October 2016 show employees discussing a plan to backdate documents so that it could conceal the fact that the firm did not know a company it had set up in the Bahamas, Fleg Trading Co., was controlled by Macri’s family.According to the original Panama Papers investigation report, Macri and other family members were directors of Fleg Trading. Macri’s father was the owner.

6-shell companies owned by iconic French jeweller Pierre Cartier.

7- India - Khemka family Documents from April 2016 to December 2017 show that Mossack Fonseca acted as the registered agent for Willsun Investments Company, an offshore entity set up by the Khemkas in Jersey. On November 7, 2017, The Indian Express reported that Nand Lal Khemka, Shiv Vikram Khemka and his brother Uday Harsh Khemka were jointly or individually linked to over 100 offshore companies incorporated by Appleby, mostly in the British Virgin Islands and Jersey. They had the largest number of offshore entities in Appleby’s records, and the second largest overall. New data accessed by The Indian Express shows that while Appleby was the intermediary company and secretary of Willsun, which was incorporated in 2005, Mossack Fonseca subsidiary Estera Trust (Jersey) Ltd was the registered agent.Khemkas are linked on record to BVI entity Willsun InvestmentsNew records investigated by The Indian Express show that the Khemka family, which had set up over hundred offshore entities incorporated by Bahamas law firm Appleby in the Paradise Papers revelations had similar ties to Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca They show that employees of Mossack Fonseca asked the company to adhere to due diligence norms as recently as October 2017, more than a year after the Panama Papers leak. They also traced a link between Shiv Vikram Khemka, a son of SUN group patriarch Nand Lal Khemka, and a Russian helicopter manufacturer that was placed on a sanctions list by the US in 2015. Emails among Mossack Fonseca employees from October 9-27, 2017, reveal that the three members of the Khemka family are listed as PEPs (Politically Exposed Persons) because Nand Lal has been the Consul General for Jamaica and Iceland in India, and Shiv Vikram Khemka a board member of Vertolety Rossii AO, the Russian company. Records show that the Khemka family claimed that their “source of income” was commissions earned on trade activities mainly between Russia and India; return and capital growth of global investments in property, public equity, private equity, mutual fund and other sectors; and, investments in Russia primarily in the confectionery, dry cereal and brewing sectors. The fresh leak shows that details submitted by Shiv Vikram and Uday Harsh to Mossack Fonseca for Willsun included Indian passport and PAN numbers, apart from proof of residence in Switzerland.

8-India – DLF family -In February 2017, Mossack Fonseca confirmed K P Singh, son Rajiv Singh, daughter Pia Singh and their immediate family as beneficial owners of the three companies NEW RECORDS of Mossack Fonseca show that it failed to collect certified due diligence documents from three entities, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), for their owners Kushal Pal Singh, promoter of real estate major DLF, and his family members despite several reminders, at least until last November.In February 2017, Mossack Fonseca confirmed K P Singh, son Rajiv Singh, daughter Pia Singh and their immediate family as beneficial owners of the three companies, and also conveyed its intent to resign as their registered agent for not fulfilling BVI laws and due diligence requirements.Responding to notices seeking information – these were served by the International Tax Authority and the Finance Ministry of BVI – Mossack Fonseca, on February 14, 2017, named Kushal Pal Singh and wife Indira Kushal Pal Singh as beneficial owners of Willder Limited – Indira Kushal Pal Singh passed away in February 2018. While Piya Singh and her husband Dhiraj Sarna were named as beneficial owners of Alfa Investments Global Ltd in Mossack Fonseca’s reply on February 16, records show that Rajiv Singh, wife Kavita and daughters Anushka and Savitri Devi were named as owners of Beckon Investments Global Ltd on February 22, 2017.

9- India - Iqbal Mirchi - Mirchi died of a heart attack at the age of 63 in 2013. He was wanted by Mumbai Police for allegedly having handled the finances of Dawood Ibrahim The latest tranche of Panama Papers has unearthed new details of offshore holdings by the family of Iqbal Mirchi, who was once wanted by Mumbai Police and died in London five years ago. These documents reveal more details about Country Property Ltd, a British Virgin Islands (BVI) entity Country was incorporated in 2010 by Iqbal Mirchi’s wife, Hajra Iqbal Memon, and their two sons, Junaid Iqbal Memon and Asif Iqbal Memon. The new data also contains information about another BVI entity incorporated by the family in 2015, just five months before the global data leak, called FSN Properties Ltd. They show that both these entities were set up to manage “real estate investment in the UK”. Documents show that on March 27, 2017, one share certificate was held by the three Memons jointly, while a new certificate was issued for Junaid Iqbal Memon and Asif Iqbal Memon. There is only a single file in the latest data on FSN, with annexures on the register of directors and register of members. They show that Mirchi’s wife was the company’s sole director in December 2016 before changes were made a year later, with Hajra and her two sons jointly holding two share certificates.

10- Anurag Kejriwal, former Delhi chief of Lok Satta Party, and his wife Uttara Kejriwal - The Indian Express reported that businessman Anurag Kejriwal, former Delhi chief of Lok Satta Party, and his wife Uttara Kejriwal were linked to four BVI companies and two Panama foundations. New data reveals that less than a month later, on May 3, Kejriwal’s BVI firms figured on the list of 69 companies Mossack records show that Kejriwal and his wife set up their first company in the BVI in 2007. In 2008 and 2010, they restructured their assets and established two Foundations in Panama of which they, and their son, were beneficiaries. Through The Nedstar Foundation, they owned Nedstar Commercial Ltd and Newington Group Trading Ltd, both based in the BVI. Newington’s activity was listed as trade in iron ore. Through The Pruak Foundation, they owned Biscay Overseas Ltd — later renamed Biscay Exports Ltd — and Krims Investments Inc, also based in the BVI.

11- Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi and Deepak Madhok of the Oberoi Group - Barely a month after The Indian Express reported that Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi and Deepak Madhok of the Oberoi Group were directors of a Bahamas company since November 2006, both resigned from the offshore entity on May 20, 2016. According to the records, before he resigned, Madhok appointed Singapore-based Tang Boon Tec as the director of J&W Inc (Bahamas). Boon Tec also recorded himself as the beneficial owner of J&W Inc through his Hong Kong company.

12 - London-based arms agent Sudhir Choudhrie and his son Bhanu Choudhrie - Arms agent Sudhir Choudhrie shifted base from Delhi to London in 2006 after his name featured in CBI probes into the contract to upgrade 130-mm field guns and the Barak missile deal. After Bhanu Choudhrie set up C&C Alpha Group in 2002, both Sudhir and his son became UK citizens. The Indian Express reported on several offshore firms linked to London-based arms agent Sudhir Choudhrie and his son Bhanu Choudhrie Indian Express report to two of these entities set up in 2002 in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) — Anterna Ltd and Belinea Services Ltd — of which Bhanu was a director. Belinea was initially called Noversa Ltd. The “compliance note” pointed out that both father and son were arrested in 2014, as part of a Serious Fraud Office probe in London for allegedly helping Rolls-Royce pay bribe to secure contracts in China and Indonesia. In India, it noted, the Ministry of Defence also ordered a CBI inquiry into the purchase of aero engines by HAL from Rolls-Royce. The latest data shows that Mossack Fonseca’s UK office informed its BVI arm that Bhanu had resigned as director of Anterna on January 27, 2016, after all 50,000 shares were transferred in November 2015 from a Seychelles entity — Protype Services Inc — to Sumant Kapur, the son of Sudhir Choudhrie’s uncle B K Kapur. Records show that Sumant Kapur, executive director of C&C Alpha Group set up in the UK by Bhanu as a family-owned private equity firm, was replaced by Dubai-based Aman Chopra as the beneficiary owner of Anterna in May 2010. But internal documents of Mossack Fonseca continued to list Kapur as holder of the company’s bearer shares in 2011. Chopra was a director and shareholder of Prototype Services Inc, which had transferred all of its shares of Anterna to Kapur. In October 2016, The Indian Express reported that Chopra had joined Bhanu on the board of directors of Belinea in May 2010. Hollister Consulting Inc, one of four Seychelles firms linked to Chopra, was the sole shareholder of Belinea. In 2011, after the CBI gave a “clean chit” to Sudhir Choudhrie in the Rs 208-crore deal between Israeli firm Soltam and the Ministry of Defence, the Enforcement Directorate commenced a probe into financial transactions of the deal but did not find any evidence of violations. The CBI closed the case in the Barak missile deal in 2013.

13- India - Kolkata businessman Shishir K Bajoria, promoter of SK Bajoria Group with an annual turnover of $200 million, rushed to update Mossack Fonseca’s records two days after The Indian Express contacted him with queries on his beneficial ownership of an offshore firm in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) during the Panama Papers investigation.The latest leak of documents shows that on March 23, 2016, First Names Group, an Isle of Man entity which set up Haptic (BVI) Ltd along with Mossack Fonseca, contacted the Panamanian law firm to update “beneficial ownership information… as soon as possible” from Shishir Kumar Bajoria to Charles Gary Hepburn.on May 3, Haptic was included in a list of 69 companies sent by BVI’s Financial Investigation Agency (FIA) to Mossack Fonseca seeking more details. On May 10, the law firm reported Bajoria as the beneficial owner of Haptic to the FIA. Bajoria belongs to one of the oldest business families in Kolkata trading in jute and tea — the SK Bajoria Group has steel refractory units in six countries. Bajoria joined the BJP in August 2014. Kolkata businessman and BJP leader Shishir K Bajoria claimed that reference to him in offshore entity’s books was an error.

14- India - Jalaj Ashwin Dani & Vita Dani -Jalaj Ashwin Dani. He stepped down from his position of eminence in Asian Paints in April 2017, after 18 years in the family trade. Several documents in the new data link Dani and his wife Vita Dani to a BVI entity called Poinsettia Group Holdings Limited. Dani is currently listed as being on the board of 38 Indian companies while his wife is on the board of nine companies and chairperson of 11Sports, a sports management company. A scrutiny of the new data shows that between April and July 2016, changes were made in the management of the company while Mossack Fonseca remained its Registered Agent. The intermediary company of Poinsettia Group Holdings changed from Chesterfield Management Nominees, located in the Isle of Man, to Nedgroup Private Wealth Corporate Services Limited, located in Jersey.

No one is guilty or criminal unless and until declared by court of law

As Indian tax laws are full of loopholes no one is going to jail today or tomorrow No one is guilty.